Zardari warns against 'systematic assault' on women rights

In a message on the eve of the 63rd birthday of Benazir Bhutto, the Muslim World’s first elected woman prime minister, he said it was worrying that obscurantist elements were increasingly suppressing women – some even calling for violence against them.

“We condemn and reject such declarations by semi literate and obscurantist male chauvinists in the name of religion. We condemn and reject the hysterical anti-women noises increasingly being made by these elements. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) vows to fight bigots and obscurantist to the finish,” he said in a statement released by PPP media cell.

Zardari also asked people to follow Shaheed Benazir in standing up to militants and extremists and not allow them foist their ideology through brute force. At the same time we must also protect and defend democratic institutions and constitutionalism, he said.

Meanwhile, Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will celebrate his mother’s birthday with Kashmiris in Bhimber, Azad Kashmir, along some other party leaders and workers.

Birthday celebration and cake-cutting ceremony will be held at High School Ground Barnala, Near Bhimber, Azad Kashmir. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, President PPP Women Wing MNA Faryal Talpur, President AJK Sardar Yaqoob Khan, Prime Minister AJK Choudhry Abdul Majeed and other Central Party leaders will also attend the occasion.